At present, thirty one states require the presence of license plates on the front of vehicle exteriors. It is expected that legislation may be passed in other states that will cause this number to increase significantly. Because this is a relatively recent event, little effort has gone into the design of these front license plates. As such, most current front license plate designs are relatively cheap, unattractive, and unstylized. Additionally, the design of existing front license plates can even detract from the appearance of other vehicle components that may have aesthetic benefits. For example, some current front license plate designs are relatively bulky and can cover up portions of a vehicle front grill, which itself can be stylized and thereby detract from its aesthetics. This obviously is undesirable.
Additionally, it is known that pedestrian leg loading targets can easily be exceeded during vehicle crash test evaluations when only existing content is evaluated, i.e., bumper beam, fascia, grille, etc. Undesirable spikes to leg loading forces will generally increase if an existing rigid license plate bracket is added to the test. This is not an acceptable condition from a safety standpoint.
One effort to address this safety concern caused by the potential additional forces that result from the inclusion of a front license plate is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,191,944. The '944 patent teaches an attachment mechanism for securing a front license plate to a front bumper of a motor vehicle. While the attachment mechanism allows for the dissipation of some energy in the event of pedestrian impact, all energy dissipation is managed entirely through the bumper system of the vehicle. Consequently, the license plate attachment is very rigid and does not allow for any flexibility between the license plate bracket and the vehicle front bumper. The performance of this system is entirely dependent upon the energy management system of the bumper to which the license plate mounting system is attached. If the bumper system to which this design is attached is close to peak loading, the design could actually add to peak loading, which obviously is undesirable.
It would thus be desirable to provide a front license plate mounting system that addresses these limitations.